The Feminization of Poverty

Sidel offers detailed and convincing arguments for the feminization-of-poverty analysis. The most specific facts she offers are in the form of statistics. She notes that the numbers of female-headed families has increased 80 percent, from 5.5 million in 1970 to 9.9 million in 1984, principally as a result of the skyrocketing divorce rate and the increasing number of mothers who have never been married. In and of itself, this fact seems to have little bearing on the feminization of poverty: it is only Sidel informs us that female-headed families are five times as likely to be poor as two-parent families that we begin to see the implications of these numbers (Sidel:17).

Second, the percentage of the population as a whole living below the poverty level decreased in the 1960's and the number of female-headed families increased in the 1970's, so that by 1981 the number of persons living in poor families headed by women had increased 54 percent even though the number of persons living in poor families headed by men decreased almost 50 percent (Sidel:16).

Third, Sidel argues that whereas the sharpest increase in the number of poor women and children occurred in the 1970's, the welfar

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half and a shocking 28 percent got nothing at all (Sidel:104). Mothers who do manage to get both day care and a job are still likely to be poor, though, because of the dual labor market. Women continue to earn an average of 64 percent of what men earn and, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, fully two-thirds of them still work in low-paying, dead-end jobs in the service, retail, or clerical fields (Sidel:61). The effects of the sexual segregation of the work force are clear when we realize that, "the higher the proportion of female workers in a given occupation, the lower the wages relative to men's will be." (Sidel:67) The problem seems to be that American society still doesn't really believe that women should be working outside of the home. The antiquated attitude that women are temporary and undependable workers taking jobs away from men with families to support lingers on to prevent equal employment opportunity and pay equity. The third underlying cause I will address concerns governmental policy and societal attitudes toward the poor. Sidel argues that Americans tend to cling to the Protestant ethic and consider people morally inferior for being poor. It seems ridiculous to call poor women who are working ou
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Approximate Word count = 1266
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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